Contextualising the Play

          King Lear is a play influenced by history and predominantly affected by contemporary social, cultural and stately events of the early 17th Century. To contextualise the play I will look at cultural, social and historical background and distinguish how this had an effect on Shakespeare’s inspiration to write King Lear.

         A lot of the characters and inspiration for King Lear came from the society around Shakespeare. He observed lots of contemporary rumours and stories in the news about scandal between fathers and daughters. For example, Sir William Allen, a former Lord Mayor of London, split his estate between his three daughters and arranged to live alternately with each. But all three treated him cruelly and disrespectfully. Another popular subject of gossip in 1603-4 was Sir Brian Annesley. His youngest daughter Cordell defended him against her eldest sister who tried to have her aged father certified mad so that she could take control of his estate and wealth. This must have been the inspiration for the main story line for King Lear, he used the idea for Gonoril and Regan to betray their father from the three daughters of Sir William Allen and then altered it to include one daughter defending and truly loving the father from the story about Sir Brian Annesley, where he also got the name for the good daughter, Cordelia form Annesley’s daughter Cordell.

          Historical affairs also had an effect on the plays characters and themes.

Shakespeare must have the book by Raphael Holinshed's. Who wrote the ‘Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland’, which told of a story of a King Leir and his three daughters Gonorilla, Regan, and Cordeilla. This inevitably must have been the inspiration for the names of the three daughters in King Lear; Goneril, Regan and Cordelia. The main idea for the tale of King Lear would probably have come from Shakespeare reading the legendary story of Lear, first told in Geoffrey of Monmouth's ‘History of England,’ written in the 13th Century.                                                                                                          

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          Other inspiration for the plot and subplot in King Lear may have come from a play and two texts that affected Shakespeare. Shakespeare may have seen a play first performed in the 1590s called, ‘The True Chronicle History of King Leir.’ It was then published in 1605, no characters died in the play, but it contained the stage direction of 'thunder and lightning' which would have given Shakespeare the inspiration for the storm scene. Shakespeare may also have read a prose romance called, ‘Arcadia.’ A novel by Sir Philip Sidney that was published in 1590, ...

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